2022 in Review!

Hello dear readers and welcome to Shoot the Rookie! This is a bit late, but in this post I’m taking a look back at the year that was 2022, so why not join me for a romp through the video games and anime that rocked my world over the the past 12 months!

Well. That was, once again, a year. As seems to be the norm now, 2022 was a rough year for many. The continuation of Covid, the spiralling cost of living crisis and the increasingly visible effects of climate change have all contributed to a lot of hardship this year. Although I have been relatively protected from the worst of these things, I would be lying if I was to say it had been a brilliant year for me, with the continued uncertainties of the world and the wanton destruction of our planet weighing heavily on my mind.

HOWEVER! There has been a lot of great stuff in the last year, and in an attempt to distract you from the doom and gloom I am going to look at the things that brought me happiness in 2022.

Let’s get started shall we!

Video Games

2022 was very much the year of Civilization in my household. I’ve written repeatedly about the game already, but my rekindled addiction meant I didn’t play as many other games this year as I would have liked, and yet I don’t regret a single minute. I would say that 2023 will be different but that would be a lie as I’ve already started a new game of Civ (let’s go Brazilllllll!).

Of course I did play a few other games, notably I finished my first ever Zelda game – Link’s Awakening – having only watched other people play them before. Other titles completed in 2022 include the excellent Metroid Dread and the ponspector-tastic Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected. Additionally my partner completed a play-through of Persona 5 in which he dated Makoto and broke Haru’s heart. I still haven’t forgiven him. Persona also featured in a different way in 2022 with the Persona Super Live concert which was an incredible experience, well worth the early start and (maybe) the ridiculous price tag.

Now, you might be wondering where Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is in this review. The truth is I still haven’t completed it. My view so far is that it is incredible and I love every character with all my heart and I want to make the experience last as long as possible. I’m also playing Soul Hackers 2 right now and am thoroughly enjoying it and looking forward to getting a bit further along so I can share my thoughts with you.

Anime

Like many others, I spent a lot of 2022 enjoying Spy Family. Although I haven’t written about it before, I absolutely loved it. I think the thing I like best about it is that in almost every episode it pushed the level of absurdity to new heights.

I have to admit that for the earlier part of 2022 I can’t remember what I was watching, but other series on my current list are the most recent season of My Hero Academia, which is slightly confusing but I’m still enjoying alot, the 2nd season of Promised Neverland, which I enjoyed to start with but now appears to be descending into an over-the-top mess, and Digimon Adventure 02, which is one of my favourite shows and I am enjoying revisiting it very much.

2022 also featured another edition of my favourite film festival, Scotland Loves Anime, which despite some issues beyond the organisers’ control, was really excellent once again and featured some frankly incredible guest appearances. If you happen to be anywhere near Scotland this November I’d highly recommend checking it out!

Other Stuff

It was nice that things started to open up more in 2022 and I managed to make the most of that and get up to some pretty cool stuff. One of the big highlights was returning to Barcelona for Rock Fest – a rock and metal festival that takes place just outside the city. It was awesome as usual with highlights coming from Judas Priest, Megadeth and more surprisingly, Kiss.

I also managed to get to a few gigs, including Halestorm, The Charlatans, Shinedown, Sepultura and Sacred Reich, plus a whole load of metal tribute bands. Sticking with music, a bunch of great albums came out in 2022, with my absolute highlight being The Hellacopters’ Eyes of Oblivion which quickly became one of my favourite albums of all time!

I also got a couple of new tattoos in 2022. One is a pin-up version of Judy Nails from Guitar Hero, and the other is an interpretation of Lio’s dragon-form in Promare, so both very much on brand! Lio isn’t quite finished yet but I am booked in to get the finishing touches in March and I can’t wait to share the final version!

Getting right up to date, over Christmas I was gifted the board game Wingspan which is really enjoyable and beautifully made. It really rounded my year off in perfect style, and although I haven’t won a game yet, I don’t really mind because it allows me to endlessly nerd-out about birds, which is one of my favourite things to do!

---

So there we have it! My review of 2022 is complete. But what did you make of it? What were your stand-out video game and anime experiences of the last 12 months? Is there anything you are particularly looking forward to in 2023? Let me know below in comments and don’t forget to join me next time for more video game and anime chat!

Wishing a happy 2023 to all my readers x

Pix1001